An Untold Story
by Nerdwaifuu
Summary: Ronin brings Dareth to his own home since it was nearly nightfall and Dareth had a long way to go before reaching his apartment in New Ninjago City. Staying over at Ronin's home reveals a lot about Ronin's life, his past and his present.(this is all based on a tweet from Tommy Andreason about considering a daughter for Ronin and how in his mind that Ronin has three kids and a wife)
1. chapter 1

It was a quiet and peaceful autumn day in Ninjago. The sun was setting, the sky was turning beautiful colors, and there was a cool breeze as two middle aged men walked side by side, the yellow, orange, anx red leaves crunching under their feet. One was fixing his brown hair, trying to look nice before reaching the other's home, just in case he lived with someone.

"Are you sure it's fine I can stay here? I could probably reach my apartment before it's too la-"

"Don't be silly, it's no problem Dareth. I got enough room..." Ronin trailed off as he reached the front porch of his home. Dareth examined the yard. It was small and the lawn looked like it hasn't been mowed for quite some time. The house was also small, nothing like he has seen in the city. He was confused as why Ronin had such a small house, since he has most likely been getting some of the profit off of the tea shop that Wu once owned and the coffee shop across the street.

"This is the right house... right?" Dareth asked as Ronin pulled out a key and put it into the front door lock. Ronin slowly nodded, unlocking and opening the front door.

"I know, not much, but it's home..." he muttered, motioning Dareth inside. Immediately, three small children rushed over to the two as soon as they took a step inside. All three surrounded Ronin and formed a group hug. At this time, Dareth saw that the group of children consisted of one girl and two boys. From what he could tell, the boys looked older and taller than the girl, possibly by two years. However, all three looked under the age of ten at least.

"Welcome home Papa!" The young girl exclaimed, pulling away from the hug and playing with her long brownish ginger braid. Her eyes resembled Ronin's dark brown eyes, yet her face resembled nothing like Ronin. She wore a cute set of pastel pink pajamas that seemed a bit dirty with dirt and mud, and the pants seemed a bit torn near her bare feet. The two other boys also were in the same condition, but one's sorta short brown hair, the same color as Dareth's hair, was quite messy, as if he just got electrocuted in a cartoon, and the other's ginger hair was pulled back into a bun. Both boys resembled Ronin in some way, the brown haired boy has his facial structure and eyes. The ginger haired boy seemed to have similar hair, but had hazel eyes, unlike Ronin and the other two kids. From what the girl said and how similar the kids were to Ronin, Dareth figured out who they were...

"You have... kids?" He asked, turning to Ronin, who just picked up the girl and was talking to her in a calm and gentle voice.

"Did you and the boys go outside and play today? Y'all got so dirty, my goodness... no way to look in front of a guest..." he set the girl down and turned to the other two boys, still kneeling next to the girl. "...go get yourself's cleaned up before dinner. You guys need to look nice because we're having a special dinner tonight." A gentle smile smiled formed on Ronin's face as the kids nodded.

"Yes dad..." the boys mumbled in unison. They walked away, whispering to each other.

"Yes Papa!" The girl responded, clearly more excited than her brothers. She snatched Ronin's hat before following her brothers. This left the two adults to talk. Ronin sighed happily as he got up, still smiling. It was almost like Dareth was looking at a totally different man.

"So... those are your kids?" Dareth restated his question, getting a nod as a response.

"They're quite adorable." Dareth said, following Ronin into the kitchen.

"Yeah, they are... Jasmine, Edward, and Aaron. Edward, or Eddie, is the one with the manbun. My boy A-A-Ron is the one with brown hair. The boys are supposed to be twins, but didn't come out identical like we thought. As you can tell, Jasmine is the youngest by two years. My sweet lil' 5 year old..." Ronin rambled on about the three kids as he started to cook some dinner. Dareth nodded and listened, but still caught at the 'didn't come out identical like _we_ thought'. Although, once Ronin seemed to be at a stopping point, the old Dojo masted decided to finally ask.

"So, um, Ronin, question. You said how _'we'_ thought whatever. What did you mean by _'we'_?" There wasn't an immediate response. Ronin remained silent for a minute before finally thinking of an answer. He placed a bunch of noodles into a pot of boiling water before answering.

"I... um... didn't have these kids all by myself of course... I used to have a wife..." He finally responded with a sad and quiet tone. He stared at the pot of noodles, not knowing what else to say.

"Used to have... Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry... I didn't know you were once married..." Dareth hesitantly replied, rubbing one of his sort of chubby arms. He heard a sniffle come from Ronin, but he couldn't tell if he was actually crying or not.

"It's fine... I'm not one who tells my life story... but she was a wonderful woman..." Ronin said before his children crashed into the kitchen, marveled by the pot of noodles on the stove.

"Oh, we're finally having something other than microwave dinner." Eddie said with a bit more enthusiasm in his voice than when he went to wash up with his two other siblings. With that in mind, Dareth noticed the kids were all cleaned up and were in comfy looking, but oversized, pajamas. However, hair was neater and there was no dirt or mud what so ever.

"Go sit down you three, dinner's almost done. A-A-Ron, can you set up the table? Eddie, get the drinks. Dareth, we can talk later." Ronin told the kids, and they immediately obeyed. They reminded Dareth a bit like some of the kids at his Dojo, when they actually chose to listen to him.

Once the noodles were done and the table was set, everyone sat in one of six wooden chairs at the wooden table. Dareth sat silently as Eddie filled each blue plastic cup with water and Ronin put noodles into the matching plastic bowl, which sat upon a plastic blue plate. The bowl, plate, and cups looked like they came in a set that parents could buy for their kids, however the forks, spoons, and butter knifes were similar to the silver ones that Dareth has back at his apartment.

"The plastic stuff is because I don't want them to break the few nice plates that we have, but the nice ones aren't washed..." Ronin told Dareth as he passed by, sitting down in the seat next to him. Everyone ate silently until Ronin finally asked the kids a question.

"So... how was Mrs. Goodwin? What did you guys do with her? By the way, she's our neighbor." Ronin whispered the last sentence to Dareth. All three kids sighed, looking at one another. They were waiting for one of them to gain the courage to talk.

"Bad. I hate her so much..." Aaron mumbled, taking a sip of water. Jasmine and Eddie nodded.

"Yeah! She was so strict! She made us go to school again yesterday! I hated it so much, I need a year break from it. Plus, she got so mad and made us go to our rooms after we came inside from playing out back. It's not our fault that there was mud on the ground and we slip and fall. Then-" Ronin raised his hand, stopping Eddie from rambling on.

"She was such an asshole..." Jasmine muttered, making everyone stare at her with a surprised look.

"Sweetheart, where did you hear that word?" Ronin calmly asked. Jasmine twisted a strand of her now wet hair, hesitant to answer.

"From you...and some people at school..." she said quietly, her gaze on her food instead of her father's eyes.

"Jasmine, look at me when speaking to me..." Willow immediately looked up, her eyes wide. She was biting her lip. "...And, you know words like that are not allowed in this hou-"

"But you talk that way. We heard you saying worsd stuff than that the other day." Eddie interrupted, getting worried looks from his siblings. Ronin began to shake his head, and Dareth began to wonder what was about to happen. He knew Eddie was speaking the truth. Ronin didn't have much of a filter when he was with Dareth and the ninja.

"You know you shouldn't interrupt people, especially anyone in this house. Now, I only talk like that in the house when I'm really angry..." Ronin began to say, before Dareth said something.

"As Jay once said, swearing is a sign of weak verbal skills." The three kids looked at Dareth with strange looks. They sat and stared at him silently until Aaron said something.

"Huh, he actually talks." Ronin chuckled and nodded.

"Yeah, he does. I nearly forgot to introduce him to you three. This is Dareth, a person I know from New Ninjago City." The kids' faces lit up with enlightenment.

"Woah... like from _the_ New Ninjago City. That's so cool!" Eddie exclaimed, raising his arms in the air and nearly knocking his cup of water over. Both Dareth and Ronin nodded.

"Oh my first spinjiztu master that's so awesome! Is the city really big? Is it really filled with technological stuff? Is Cyrus Borg nice? Do you know the ninja?" Eddie began spitting out a million questions at once, making Dareth chuckle a bit.

"Woah, one question at a time. But, the city is quite big. It is filled with tech stuff. I haven't really got a chance to meet Borg, but the ninja say he's chill. And finally, I do know the ninja. I actually helped them on a couple missions." Dareth answered a few questions that he actually heard. At that moment, Jasmine's face lit up even more.

"Wait, you're _the_ Dareth! The one who took that one helmet... the um..."

"Helmet of Shadows..." Aaron whispered to Jasmine.

"Yeah, Helmet of Shadows! The one that took control of the Stone Army!" Dareth chuckled, being quite flattered from the recognition.

"Well, I'm flattered." He responded, noticing from the corner of his eye that Ronin was smiling a bit as he silently listened to the conversation. For the rest of the meal, the kids asked Dareth questions about the Helmet of Shadows, the ninja, and other missions that Dareth was present for. Unfortunately, the conversion ended once everyone was full or done with their dinner.

"Alright kiddos, time for bed." Ronin told the three children, getting groans as a response. The kids went upstairs and Ronin followed, leaving Dareth alone down in the empty dining room. Dareth decided to clean up the table, setting all the plates, bowls, cups, and silverware in the sink. Once done with that, he explored the living room.

It wasn't that big. It had a old looking couch and a small tv. Along the wall was a fireplace that held a couple picture frames. The shelve that had the frames was quite dusty, but that didn't bother Dareth at the moment. His attention was on the pictures. There was one with a younger looking Ronin with his family, then another where it looked like he was apart of some sort of armed force. In both pictures, Ronin seemed like he wasn't that happy. He had what seemed to be a forced smile.

Another frame held a wedding picture. Within the picture, it had the young Ronin locking lips with a woman with a similar colored hair as Dareth, but it was in braid with a flower crown. Her white wedding dress was quite beautiful, with long sleeves that had a sort of flower design and a dress that seemed to fit her nearly slim figure, yet there seemed to be a slight baby bump from what Dareth could see. In the next picture, it looked like a baby shower. Within this photo, he could see both Ronin and the woman from the wedding photo was enjoying themselves. Big smiles were plastered on their faces as they revealed the genders of their twins, both being boys. In the next picture was in the hospital. A baby Aaron and baby Eddie were in the arms of a clearly tired woman. Dareth was guessing Ronin was taking the photo this time. The next two were the same as the last two, except the gender was revealed to be a girl, there was a girl in the woman's arms, and a two year old Eddie and Aaron appeared in the photos. A small smile was on Dareth's face, a warm feeling was in his heart from seeing the family being happy together. The smile and warm feeling soon disappeared however. His eyes glaced at the last and final picture frame, which held a photo of Ronin in front of his first shop in Stixx, now with his recognizable fake smile. The picture was in black and white, and looked like it was cut out of a newspaper.

"I know... those two years with her was the best two years of my life..." Dareth jumped from the the monotoned voice he just heard. He turned to see Ronin. The smile that he saw was now replaced with a frown, and his eyes looked empty. A sigh escaped Ronin's lips as he walked over to the photos, his eyes locked on the wedding photo.

"She felt like my soulmate... she was perfect... she still had her flaws, but she was like a gift from the gods... she was my key to happiness..." Ronin muttered, his hand wrapped around the dusty wooden picture frame. Another sigh escaped his lips.

"She was everything to you... wasn't she..." Ronin nodded, taking a deep breath.

"If you don't mind..." Dareth trailed off. Ronin looked up from the photo, motioning for Dareth to finish.

"...I'm interested in hearing more about her..."

 **A/N: Wooooooo, I'm actually proud of this. So, if you Ninjago fans don't know, there was a little thing on Twitter where Tommy Andreason said they were considering on making Ronin have kids and a wife. So yeah, that was a perfect fanfic opportunity tbh.**


	2. Chpater 2

Yet another sigh escaped Ronin's lips, as he ran his fingers through his nearly ginger colored hair. He released the picture frame and slowly made his way to the old couch. He sat down and patted the open spot next to him. Taking that as a sign to sit down, Dareth rushed over to the couch and sat down, eager to hear about the woman in the pictures.

"Well... I guess I'll start at the beginning..." Then Ronin began his tale. The story started off about how he joined Ninjago's army, which he said was where he got some of his samurai armor came from. His parents wanted him to do something great in life and saw an opportunity for their son and took it. Even though Ronin remembered not being happy about joining and being forced to fight, his parents still made him join either way. However, there, he kinda felt like he actually fit in. He was the smallest of the bunch, but the entire army was nearly all men, except for a few women who wanted to try to fight instead of being in the medical field or anything other than being on the battlefield. All the men always teased the few women.

"I regret it, but I was one of the men who teased them. At the time, I really tried to make sure I fit in, even if it was repeating everyone's inappropriate behavoir." Ronin admitted with a sigh, then continued.

He continued to follow his so called friends' leads, until one day. It was a couple weeks into training and one of his "friends" told him to go train with one of the females. They all figured he would kick her butt and bring up more to tease her about, since she was quite skinny and not strong looking at the slightest.

"I, unfortunately but also fortunately, agreed to do it." Ronin began to explain what happened next. He went up to the girl and asked to train with her. Even though she seemed hesitant, she agreed to train with him. They practiced some hand to hand combat, which resulted in Ronin actually getting his butt kicked. Ronin said he specifically remember him being swept off his feet and, as soon he recovered and sat there on the ground, awestruck. Looking back on it, Ronin said he knew he had literally fallen in love, but hasn't fully realised it at the time.

"She was actually really strong in my opinion. I could tell she was trying her best to prove herself to the guys, which worked with me. I knew she deserved a spot in the army along side us." Dareth couldn't help but smile a little bit as he continued to listen to Ronin's tale. Apparently, after that encounter with her, the girl asked him to train with her whenever they had a chance. When they trained, Ronin learned quite a lot about her. Her name was Luna Hord, her parents also forced her to join, and the only reason she agreed was because she wanted to prove she wasn't a failure. But, each time he did train with her, Ronin always heard the same insults every single time he agreed to train with Luna. There was even one time someone even hinted at him having a crush on her. He always ignored everything that was said, until they decided to attack Luna at dinnertime.

"They teased her at first, doing what they normally did. But... my so called "friend" decided to get physical. He messed with her brown ponytail, pulled on it... he started touching her without permission. He had worse insults that before. At that moment, I couldn't take it anymore. I knew it was wrong and tried to stop it myself..." Ronin looked down and picked at his left index fingernail.

"Was kinda a big mistake. I got my ass kicked real bad, way worse than what Luna did to me in training. Although, it was worth it I guess." Dareth nodded in agreement. Ronin sighed once more before continuing.

A witness of what the "friend" did and the fight that occured got someone in charge. Ronin didn't remember what exactly happened to the other guy, but it wasn't good. However, he remembered that he was sent to the nurse's tent to get treated. While on the bed, holding an icepack on his head, he waited for one nurse to come back. He remembered hearing a familiar female voice, but it wasn't the nurse.

"I turned around to see her. Luna... I remember admiring her as she stood in the moonlight coming through a hole in the tent. Her hazel eyes sparkled, her hair was out of her ponytail and went to her shoulders, and she held her dogtag that she always wore close to her. ' _Thank you'_ she said to me in a quite whipser, a small smile on her white face. I swear, I was probably blushing, especially when she took a seat next to the bed, wiped blood from my bloody nose, and placed her clean hand on my bruised cheek." Ronin's face started to turn a bit crimson from probably just talking about what happened. His face became even redder with the topic afterwards.

After standing up for her, Ronin and Luna became closer and closer. They both started to fall for each other, but never got the chance to confess their feelings before a couple years into them being in the army, with a night filled with all kinds of alcohol. From what Ronin could recall, he found out the next morning that Luna took him to her tent after he was found in the corner questioning life with a bottle of booze in his hand. Then, things apparently got steamy after that.

Dareth's lips formed a smirk, knowing what Ronin meant. Ronin's face was completely red at this point as he nervously chuckled, deciding on what to say next.

"Yeah... and... we didn't have any... protection..." he coughed while saying 'protection', trying to covert er up what he said. Dareth immediately knew what happened next and raised his eyebrows up and down, chuckling a bit. Ronin rolled his eyes in response.

"We were young and drunk, alright. But yeah, she got pregnant with Eddie and Aaron. She used that to get us out of the army, but her parents never found out about it until she gave birth, which will be important in a bit..."

When the two of them got out of the army, Ronin's parents decided to actually help them out this once and gave them enough money to get a house, for Ronin to purchase an engagement ring, and for a decent wedding.

"The wedding was really nice. Almost my whole family and Luna's family attended. When I saw Luna, I felt like I was falling in love all over again. She was still beautiful as ever, even if it was really the first time I saw her in a dress and with makeup. When we exchanged vows and kissed, I knew that I was on the right path to a happy and enjoyable life..." Ronin said. His face was no longer red and his thin lips formed a small smile. Dareth hesitately asked a question, worried that it would removed that small bit of happiness that Ronin had at the moment.

"So... what about her pregnancy? Did anybody ask about it?" Ronin nodded.

"Yeah. I told my parents the truth. When Luna's parents asked her about how she looked, since I'm guessing the last time they saw her, she was like a twig, she said that she wasn't in shape. 'Oh, just haven't exercised in awhile nor have I been eating healthy' she told them. They surprisingly believed her." Ronin explained. Dareth gave him a confused look.

"Why though?"

"I asked her later on. First off, she got pregnant _before_ she got married. She said her parents wouldn't be exactly happy about that. She refused to say anything other than that... but... of course, hiding it didn't make things better..."

Ronin continued with the baby shower. The only people who came were people Ronin knew. He recalled that Luna refused to invite any of her family or her friends. Either way, he didn't bring up her family at all and they had a lot of fun. It wasn't close to how they felt at their wedding, but it still felt like a special day. Everyone who attended found out that Luna was going to have twins, which was also a surprise to Ronin. Then, two months later, the day finally came. Luna went into labor and they immediately made their way to the hospital. While they waited, things were not pretty.

"I called my parents as soon as we checked in, telling them about what's going on. Apparently they got a hold of Luna's parents because they came into the hospital 30 minutes after I made the call. I soon found myself against the wall outside of the hospital as Luna's father was yelling at him."

Ronin could recall that he was yelling things that included insults and threats that would remove him from Luna's life. Ronin remained silent all the way through, the only thing on his mind was Luna, and possibly what her mom could be doing at the moment. Luna's father's "lecture" ended with Ronin being punched in the face. After her father was out of sight, Ronin said he rushed back inside and went to Luna, who was waiting in the room that a nurse led her to. Her mother shot a deadly look at him as he passed her in the hallway, which he remembered clearly. What he also remembered clearly was the quiet sobbing from his wife, who he found curled up on the hospital bed in the room. Until a doctor or nurse came in to retrieve her, Ronin spent the time comforting her.

"During that time, she told me everything that her mom did. Even though her daughter was in pain and didn't want to deal with her at the moment, Luna's mom apparently yelled at her and was extremely angry about the whole thing. She was telling her to do things she didn't want to talk about to me at the time. She was telling Luna off for doing things before getting married and all that. She soon stopped talking and just clutched my free hand as I ran my other through her now messy hair. It was like that until her water broke and the delivery began." At that point, Ronin said the only important thing that happened was that he totally wasn't balling his eyes out as soon as he saw and got a chance to meet his two sons.

"Sure thing. Totally believable." Dareth smirked again. Ronin shook his head and sighed before going on about when Luna got pregnant with Jasmine two years later. The only difference this time was that Luna's parent knew as soon as possible and they didn't show up at all at the hospital. Although, the rest of Luna's family did appear at the baby shower and seemed like almost total opposites of her parents.

"Well, I'm gonna get some drinks for us before getting into the rest of the story." Ronin sighed. He got up and disappeared into the kitchen. Dareth sat there on the couch, letting all the information sink in. He felt happy to know Ronin did find happiness with Luna and his new growing family, but immediately grew disgusted when he thought about her parents.

"Mommy's parents were so mean..." Dareth's train of thought was interrupted by a soft high pitched female voice. He got up and made his way into the dining room, noticing a hallway. In that hallway, against the wall, was a certain group of three kids whispering about what the story they just heard.

"Yeah. It seems like so many people they knew were jerks." Eddie whispered back to Jasmine, not noticing that Dareth has spotted them. They continued to whisper among themselves until Jasmine realized that Dareth was standing there the whole time.

"Oh, hi Dareth!" She exclaimed, a big grin on the face. Her brothers, however, had a horrified look on their faces. They knew they had been caught and were about to get in trouble.

"What are you three doing?" Dareth asked quietly, plopping onto the floor next to the kids. The three looked at each other silently until Eddie said something.

"It was Aaron's idea! I only wanted to go to the bathroom but we never hear about our mum. Please don't tell Dad!" He blurted out, getting a dirty look from Aaron.

Dareth chuckled, "Alright alright, I won't." Eddie sighed in relief, then bailed. He ran off to his room, leaving Aaron and Jasmine with Dareth.

"Eddie has the right idea... you two should go as well." Aaron sighed and obeyed, dragging Jasmine with him.

"Aw man, but I wanna hear more..." Dareth heard Jasmine whine as Aaron and Jasmine disappeared into a room. Even without anyone in the short hallway, Dareth continued to look at the end of the hallway. He began to space out before he got interrupted by Ronin's voice.

"They were eavesdropping I'm gonna guess." Dareth got back on his feet, nodding. As soon as he was on his feet, Ronin handed him a plastic cup, filled halfway with a blood red liquid. With another cup of wine in his hand, Ronin led Dareth back into the living room. Both sat back down on the couch and took a small sip of their drink.

"I saw you more of a beer guy." Dareth told Ronin after taking a sip.

"Yeah, but I had a bottle of wine and it's not gonna just disappear on it's own." Ronin responded before taking another small sip.

"Ready to continue?" Ronin asked Dareth. Dareth quickly shook his head up and down. Ronin sighed and chugged the rest of the wine in his cup.

"Alright..."

 **A/N: Well, I don't honestly like this chapter compared to the last chapter. But oh well. I tried my best tho, even though the story needs a bit of work tbh. Hope you guys like it. There will be more coming soon. Maybe like two more chapters of this, and maybe another story going into deeper detail about each thing. But, I'm gonna head to bed. That's all folks.**


	3. Chapter 3

Ronin continued his tale. After Jasmine was born, they both just settled down and acted like one big happy family. They adored their children and each other. Even with the occasional silly fights Ronin and Luna got into, they made up quickly and still loved each other. Although, Ronin was home lesser and lesser because of a job he decided to pick up.

"It became our dream to open up a small shop in the city. But to achieve that dream, I needed to go out and work. I became a waiter at a small café in the area." Ronin sighed and smiled a little. "I remember always swiping a pastery every time my shift ended and I would bring it home to her. She always insisted on sharing it, no matter the size." Dareth began to smile as well, only for it to disappear.

The peace in Ronin's home was some distrupted a couple weeks after bringing Jasmine home. That night seemed to be like any other at first, but soon became hell in a matter of minutes. Ronin clearly remembers the night completely. The neighbors, Harold and Carol Goodwin, decided to come over and hang out with him and Luna. Eddie and Aaron were playing in the play area of the living room while they talked and Jasmine was sleeping in her crib. Luna was in the kitchen making some snacks.

"All of a sudden... a scent of burning filled the room. We all thought it was Luna cooking something, but she wasn't using the oven, stove, or microwave at all. I soon tracked the smell to the door located in the living room, which led to the garage. The burning smell was becoming stronger. I opened the door and cautiously walked around, trying to dodge everything I left on the floor from what I last worked on our car. I soon faced a burning wall. I could also hear Carol yelling about how the house next door had bursted into flames... which had spread to our home, starting with the room that had cans of gasoline..." Dareth knew where this was heading...

"Before I could even think of getting out, everything was like a nightmare. It felt so quick, yet so slow at the same time. I'm surprised I survived. There was a explosion of fire... next thing I know I'm getting dragged out of the house by Harold. I could barely see out of my right eye and everything on that side felt like I was burning..." Ronin motioned towards his eye patch. He untied it and revealed a bit of what of underneath, but kept it over his eye. Dareth's eyes widen at the site. There were severe burns. It could be comparable to Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender. Dareth was left speechless as Ronin fixed the eye patch before he continued.

"Any who, I found myself heading back inside... after I got dragged outside, Harold went back inside to get both Luna and Jasmine. Apparently, Luna went back inside to get me and then Jasmine... she never came back out so I soon got up and rushed inside."

Ronin recalled the whole place was ready to crumble at that point. The ceiling was falling in and the flames was burning everything in sight. However that was not going to stop him to make sure Luna was safe and sound. He searched quickly, ignoring the burning sensation in his body and the fact that he could now barely see out of his other eye. Soon enough, he heard a crash and muffled scream. He coughed his way over to where it came from, finding his wife under a brunch of rubble.

"She was coughing and crying, gasping for fresh air... all she got was the smoke from the fire that surrounded us. She wasn't even trying to get out from under the rubble. All I could hear was what seemed like distant screaming from her, telling me to get out. 'Get out' she kept screaming as I tried to release her. She was weakly punching my leg while she was screaming, each scream becoming more raspy than the last. 'Please' she whispered, grabbing my hand. I refused to move at a-all..." Ronin looked down at his empty cup, biting his lip. He turned his head slightly to the right, not allowing Dareth to his face. A worried look appeared on Dareth's face. He slowly placed his big arm around Ronin, pulling him close.

"You know..." Dareth couldn't believe he was about to say this. He wanted to know more and wanted to know how it ended. "You can just stop there..." Ronin wiped his left eye and shook his head.

"No... I'll continue... I wanna get this off my chest..." Ronin took a shaky breath, looking up at Dareth with his tear filled eye.

"I-I laid down there with her limp hand in mine. She became silent... her breath was slow... until it was no longer around... then all I could hear was everyone outside and the fire crackling around us. As I grasped her hand, keeping it close to me, I didn't care about what happened to me. The burns... the scars... it no longer mattered... I-i... can't..." Tears streamed down his left cheek. Ronin hid his face once again. Dareth once again held Ronin close to him once again, allowing him to let everything out. This was a totally new side of him that Dareth never knew actually existed.

"With... with... without her, my life was thrown into a downward spiral. I lost all my money to pay for her funeral and for a new house. I didn't feel like working. I couldn't work until there was someone who could take care of the kids. I became an idiot in every way. Betted nearly everything I had to a fucking ghost, only to go into deeper debt then I already was! I seemed to be a bad guy some time ago... I decided to get myself involved with Chen and just... I needed the money! My shop in Stiix and now the city couldn't get me and my family any closer to recovering!" He sobbed loudly, hidding his face in his arms. Dareth held him close and ran his chubby fingers through his long and messy hair. Dareth began to hum a calming tune that he heard one of Ninja hum once. Ronin sighed quietly and wiped his eye again.

"God dammit... I feel like a big baby now..." Dareth began to chuckle a bit before releasing him.

"Oh shush. It's good to let your feelings out. Wow, I should listen to my own advice." Ronin once again wiped his eye and smiled a bit.

"Yeah..." he muttered before getting up.

"Well..." he cleared his throat and rubbed the back of his neck. "we should get to bed... I can bring you to our gu-"

"How 'bout I sleep with you?" Dareth blurted out. Even though Dareth would rather have a bed to himself, he felt like maybe giving Ronin some company for tonight. Fortunately, Ronin approved the idea and led Dareth to the master bedroom. Without a word, they both just got into bed. They were honestly pretty tired from just that long storytime, but neither could fall asleep. With their backs to each other, both men had an awkward silence between them.

"Um... Luna sounded like a wonderful woman... I'm sorry for your loss..." Dareth whispered.

"Yeah... by the way, thank you for all that. Listening to my story and somewhat comforting me afterwards... it felt nice to let all that out..." Dareth began to smile a bit after hearing that, but before he could reply, he heard quiet snoring from behind him. He turned his head a bit, only to see the back of Ronin's head and shirt... but he seemed to be sound asleep. Dareth let out a sigh before closing his eyes.

" _Sweet dreams Ronin..."_

 **A/N: Ummmmm... I have nothing to say... hoped you enjoyed this chapter(?). Next chapter should be the last chapter of this little story with my boys Roonon and Darey-th. Man, I will actually finish a story for once.**


	4. Chapter 4

Sunlight seeped into the nearly silent bedroom. The only thing disturbing the silent atmosphere was quiet snoring from the two men sleeping, each on opposite sides of the bed. The warm blanket was being hogged by Ronin, but Dareth still slept soundly even without the blanket. He, instead of the blanket, got the whole right side of the bed to himself as Ronin was squished and curled up, wrapped in the blanket like a burrito on the left.

It was nice and peaceful until Dareth finally woke up. His mind was completely against being up this early, but Dareth knew he wasn't getting back to sleep anytime soon. He sighed.

 _'I was having a nice dream as well...'_ he thought to himself as he turned to his other side to face the blanket burrito next to him. He just noticed how he had none of the blanket, and couldn't help but quietly chuckle. He began to shake his head, scooting closer to Ronin and moved a bit of the blanket so he could see his face. He looked so peaceful and Dareth couldn't dare wake him up. He decided to sneak out of the room and try to cook some breakfast to return the favor of Ronin letting him stay over. He tried to tiptoe over to the door, which fortunately worked. With a silent sigh, Dareth exited the room and tiptoed to the kitchen. He searched all the cabinets and the fridge for things to make for breakfast. Finding only eggo waffles and a carton of eggs to use, he began to make some breakfast. He started with the scrambled eggs. He has seen Zane cook breakfast before, so Dareth tried to recreate what the best chef on the ninja team did, failing to do so. After retrying twice, Dareth finally was successful in making somewhat good eggs. When he was finishing up the eggs, he heard small footsteps making their way to te kitchen.

"Papa, I smell food! Whatcha ma-" Jasmine came skipping in and stopped immediately when seeing who was in the kitchen, looking surprised to see that it wasn't her father. Her face turned red as she rubbed the back of neck, giggling nervously.

"Sorry, thought you were Papa..." Jasmine apologized, slowly backing up into the hallway. Dareth chuckled a bit.

"It's fine kid." Jasmine began to smile a bit before skipping into the dining room to wait for the breakfast to be served. Eddie and Aaron soon joined her when Dareth started putting the eggo waffles into the toaster. Once they were done and breakfast was served at the table, a tired looking Ronin dragged himself out of his room and to the table. Ronin remained silent as the kids shared their dreams. Dareth listened closely to their adventure packed stories. Some was more bizarre than the others, but all of them sounded interesting.

"Hey Dareth, what you dream about?" Jasmine asked curiously, leaning forward in her seat. Dareth almost completely forgot his dream at this point, but the dream soon came back to him.

"Well... it wasn't as awesome as yours, but it had a man with his family. He would do anything for them. He would make all the mistakes in the world to make sure his family was happy once again." Ronin stopped eating and started to pick at his food, interested to hear the rest of the conversation.

"Did the family stay happy in the end?" Jasmine asked, leaning even more forward. Dareth slowly nodded.

"The family was happy all the way through. Even with all the cr- I mean, stuff going on around them. They were just happy have him around to care for them and all that."

"Wow, sounds a bit cheesy..." Aaron uttered, getting elbowed by Jasmine.

"Quiet! It sounds like a nice dream..." Jasmine sighed happily, making Aaron roll his eyes. Eddie nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, sounds like a cute lil' dream." Eddie added before eyeing Ronin's food, which Ronin was still picking at.

"You gonna eat that?" Ronin slid his plate over to Eddie, who immediately dug right in. Ronin got up from the table and disappeared into the kitchen. Dareth watched him leave the table, soon following him. Ronin was found at the old coffee maker, making some coffee. He didn't show any sign of knowing Dareth was there in the room. Dareth stood there awkwardly, kicking at the tiled floor. He sighed and finally broke the silence.

"Sorry if that made you uncomfortable..." Ronin turned his head slightly, sighing.

"It's fine... no need to apologize..." he muttered in a monotone voice. He turned his head away again, then spoke again. "You know... when I laid there next to her... her hand in mine as she laid there dead... the only thought in my mind was just to join her. I didn't care if the flames engulfed me and killed me. I wanted to be with her... But I wasn't killed... I was given another chance to live..." he took the now filled coffee pot and poured himself a cup of coffee.

"I was saved. I was taken out of the house by firefighters before I could see the light. I thought it was a mistake throughout the years... they should've just left me... I thought the kids would've been better off with all I have done... but now..." Ronin bit his lip and hid his face with his right arm, taking a deep breath. "I'm glad they came. I'm glad I lived." A small smile appeared on Dareth's face as he went over and wrapped an arm around Ronin.

"That's good to hear." Ronin began to smile a bit as well, removing his arm from his face. He nodded in agreement before he began to drink his coffee. Silence fell between the two adults. Dareth stood there with an arm around Ronin, meanwhile Ronin continued to silently drink his coffee.

"By the way..." Dareth turned his attention to Ronin quickly, glad that the silence was finally broken. "Don't tell anybody about anything I told ya... especially the ninja. I don't need their pity." Ronin said coldly, taking his final sip of the coffee. Dareth nodded, showing that he understood.

"Of course." Ronin smiled slightly, putting his cup in the sink.

"Well... you better get going soon... you probably got stuff to do..." Ronin told Dareth. Dareth slowly nodded.

"Yeah... I guess." Dareth shrugged, before hugging Ronin once again before whispering "Thanks for letting me stay over... and telling me about her...". Ronin hesitantly and awkwardly hugged back before pulling away.

"Anytime..." he said, now a sad tone in his voice. "Well, see ya" he added.

"Bye." Dareth shot Ronin one last smile before leaving. Ronin stood there silently, watching Dareth leave the kitchen and out of the house. With a the door closing, he knew Dareth was out and heading back to the city. It wasn't their final goodbye and he knew they would run into each other again, probably when the ninja have another mission... but this goodbye seemed to be different then any others they had...

Ronin didn't want to think about it at the moment. He was going to leave everything that happened where it happened. Now, the only thing that he should be worried about is what should him and the kids do today. He left the kitchen, and went over to Eddie and Aaron, setting his hands on both of their shoulders.

"Alright kiddos, what you guys wanna do?" All the kids looked at each other before answering in unison.

"Go to the city!" Ronin sighed and laughed a bit.

"Alright, get yourselfs ready." The kids obeyed, rushing to their rooms to get chaned and to the bathroom to brush their teeth and take of other business. Meanwhile, Ronin waited in the living room. He stood at the fireplace, staring at the picture frames. For once, when looking at the pictures, he didn't feel like the world was pushing him down. He finally felt free. He finally let everything off his mind. It felt nice...

"Thanks Dareth..."

 **A/N: Oof, so sorry for the last two chapters being shorter than the first. But hey, we're at the end of the story. I hope you guys enjoyed this short story. I enjoyed writing it. Now, just need to spead some time on other stories...**


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